Phyto In A Tube

     Chris is always for new tank projects despite my protests. He had been talking about cultivating phytoplankton for years and since last Christmas, had been begging for a phytoplankton reactor. 

photo courtesy of reefbuilders.com

     I told him to make one out of bottles like most reefers do.

photo courtesy of reefcentral.com

     Instead, we are at our friend Kyles house one day and he sees an old homemade kalk stirrer that was sitting at the curb to be pick up by the garbage man and decides to bring it home for the tank instead. Sure! Why the fuck not?! 

     Plankton acts as a food source to countless species of corals and invertebrates and even larger animals as well. Every reefer has bought DT's at one time or another and knows how beneficial it is to their livestock (and how expensive it is). However, I know another project will only lead to more projects.

     Doesn't matter, he sets it up. 

     And a strange light emits from the basement as you descend down the stairs. 

     Day two and it starts to turn a shade of green.

     And before long it's even greener.

     A few more days and he's bottling them up and storing them in the fridge. 

     And wouldn't you know it, I was right! Another project soon followed. Tisbe pods are being bred and fed to the tank daily as well. We also give them to the members of the club and trade them with a local fish store too. It wasn't long that I was making labels for the bottles. 

     We even have labels for the phyto now too. 

     I find it kind of cute sometimes when he asks me to come downstairs to see how green the phyto is this particular day. It's green, very green. He talks about leaving it for another day to have it get a little greener sometimes. It was of course trial and error in the beginning. Now we have gallons of the stuff and are looking forward to the next club meeting to include a bunch of it in the club raffle. Our corals are very happy as well as all the pods we are breeding now. 

     Until next time, stay green!!

My Evicted Friend

     Chris was all excited late July after order two file fish in order to help with the manjo anemone infestation in our tank. If anyone doesn't know what one of these bastards looks like here is a photo:

photo courtesy of unclenedsfishfactory.com

     These anemones are truly a reefers worst enemy and after some extensive research, Chris decided to risk the fish and purchase them for the tank. Only some were known to 'nip' at sps polyps and even then, it wasn't detrimental. 

     The fish finally arrived. As usual, I was home to receive the package and acclimate them to the tank. I open the box and pull out the bags. 

     Oh shit...

     The first fish is upside down in the bag. This is not a good sign and incredibly sad. I pull out the second bag. The little guy looks just like his brother.

     I slice open the first bag and poke the fish. No movement. Damn. Now for the second bag. I'm not too optimistic but what the hell, right? I slice the bag open and actually put my hand in the bag. However, this time, the fish moves ever so slightly! Holy shit!!! 

     I pick the fish out of the freezing cold water and run over to the tank, pull off the lid and throw my hand into the water. Now it occurs to me that I just shocked this mostly dead fish even more. Good thinking Missie! I hold him there for a few seconds and it suddenly feels as though he bites me or something and I let go. Now he's floating sideways in the tank with the current and I fear he's going to go into our giant carpet anemone so, I scoop him back up into my hand again.

     I hold him for a while. Every once and a while I let him go to see if he can swim at all and then I quickly scoop him back up. I keep getting the feeling of getting bit or maybe he's putting little spikes into my hand, I'm not sure but, he's not ready yet to be on his own. 

     Eventually, I let him go but, I watch to make sure he stays away from that damned anemone. That anemone has eaten some expensive fish in a matter of seconds before. When the kids get home I keep asking them to look for the little guy too. I now have an attachment to the fish that I thought came in dead that I almost left in the bag. 

     Chris comes home and I tell him the story. I'm all excited because I saved the life of this little file fish. Within a few days he's doing fine too. 

     However, within that time he also begins nipping at the sps in the tank. By mid August Chris has decided to evict my little friend. He puts up some pictures on Reef Central along with a post about the little guy and a fellow reefer offers to buy him. Chris offers to give him my friend as soon as he scoops him up. 

Pictures of him slurping up some sps polys for a before dinner snack...

     He was caught soon after and given to our fellow reefer at the next club meeting. Every once and a while he'll post a picture on reef central for me so that I know he's okay and he always tells me how he's doing when we see him. He's a survivor...too bad he couldn't just stick to manjo's!

     Until next time, always check twice, like Santa does! 

Chriskid's Stag

     It's funny when I go through my photo's on my computer sometimes. I have a folder that I place all of our fishtank photo's in as I take them off of our camera. Usually Chris has an array of top tank shots, side views, a new fish he's recently bought, zoanthids that are looking amazingly well, you name it. 

     This morning I was going through the photo's in order to come up with a tank update for July since nothing really went on that month. This must have been the month we added the LED's to the tank. Why do I think this? Because most of July's pictures are of Chris trying to capture the glow from the LED's onto the corals. It's an amazing sight here in the house, on the camera however...eh...not so much. 

In case anyone is wondering, we only use the LED's to add a 'pop' of color to our tank. We are die hard halide supporters. 

     When I talk about this folder and going through it let me tell you, this takes time. There are thousands of photo's in it from all the years we've had our new camera. If I want older ones, I have to search through six or seven disks to find the picture or pictures I'm looking for. These ones are usually so awful in clarity though, that I only put them up for a before and after type of logic. 

     That's pretty much what I plan on doing right now too :)

     About eight years ago (give or take) Chris was wandering through Fin & Feather looking for coral. He would always end up talking to one particular worker there or we would get into conversations with the owner, John. This particular day he was off with John in coral land as I wandered around and looked at the other animals. After some time he tells me he's all set as he's walking out of the fish area with three bags in his hand. He's all excited, he just got a really great deal on some coral. Cool! So, what did he get? We go to the register and I look into the bags. I will never remember the other corals he bought that day or if we still have them but, this one...oh for crying out loud! Really?! It was a thick brown stick with a ball on the bottom. I remember complaining about him buying brown coral again and then expressing my absolute distaste for this ugly, brown dick looking one. He was excited however because they were only $20 a piece. I then expressed that they were this price because they were ugly and one of them looked like a dick. 

     The coral went into the tank and it was forever deemed 'The Big Brown Dick' by me. 

     This was the time when we were still getting used to keeping SPS in the tank so, for some time, this coral remained simply long, brown, and dick-like in resemblance. Chris moved it to the basement tank for a while. I'm not sure if it was because of my comments or something else but, it was gone for a while.

     A few months went by and the coral started to show a little bit of life and started to grow from the base. It also started turning dark green. See it in the picture? You can't miss it! Towards the front and to the right of our frogspawn in the sand.

     About six more months went by. I'm peering into the tank one day and see this amazing coral. It's light pale green and goes to blue and the very tips of it are an amazing yellow. I ask Chris what in the hell this coral is and he smiles at me, "It's The Big Brown Dick" he says. He proceeds to give me the 'I told you so' talk about corals and lighting. 

     After some time it grew enough to be fragged which was a good thing. We lost the main colony some time ago when our tank crashed the first time for unknown reasons. 

     When people would come over and look at our tank they would always ask about it. We would tell them the story of my dislike for it when it was bought and how it grew into a thing of beauty but, we never had a name. Chris knew it was a stag and that was all he was ever able to find. 

     About two years ago, someone was over and bought a frag of it. When he asked the name and we told him the story he said we should just start calling it Chriskid's Stag. From then on, that's what we have done or for short CK's Stag We've joked and said that we should have named it The BBD Stag. 

     Before the tank upgrade Chriskid's Stag looked like this...

     In July it has grown into a monster coral in our tank...

     So, (another) lesson learned in the reefkeeping hobby. The brown sticks can truly turn into things of beauty if provided proper lighting and water conditions. 

     Chris buys a lot of wild coral now for two reasons. One is to prove to himself that he can keep them alive because we have noticed most hobbyist have a lot of difficulty with them. Two, to see what will happen to that one that has no color but, looks like it has a lot of potential. It's fun to see what we get sometimes. 

     Until next time, happy coral shopping! 

Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

     The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th. 

     Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area. 

     I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go. 

     I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

     Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine. 

     We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted. 

     Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

     The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people. 

     Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store. 

     Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them. 

     A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

Photo by Lisa Messier

     We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.      

     Until next time, keep fraggin! 

Acrylic and a Blowtorch

     After a long time of discussing a different location with another member, Chris and this gentleman finally worked out a date for CTARS to hold a meeting at the Wildwood Christian School in Norwich, Connecticut. This school actually houses it's own saltwater aquarium in the room we were in so, it gave everyone something to look at and discuss before and after the meeting too. 

     Meeting topic: Working with Acrylic. This time though, Chris' dad Emery would be doing the presentation.

     Emery had been making some tanks for himself and they came out great (did you see the tank from the FFM? One of his!). The club had originally planned for someone else to come out and do the presentation however, it fell through. Emery stepped up and offered to demonstrate how to build a small frag tank and then raffle it off at the end. Chris wanted the proceeds of the raffle were to go to the Lutz tank though and not the club this time. Done deal...

     The turnout was nice, the room was filled and there was standing room only shortly after the demonstration began. These photo's are actually later on in the meeting (during the raffle ticket sale) but, I figured they made the point either way.

     Emery had made all the cuts prior to the meeting and started first by explaining the costs of a sheet of acrylic, where to buy it in his area, and how to make the cuts. Then, fire....

 

     After that, he began the assembly with Chris' help and answered any questions people had.

     Then he started to seal/bond the acrylic together. 

     While chatting with the President, Kyle.

     In the meantime, raffle tickets were sold for both the tank and for all the other items brought to the meeting. Chris put together some great frag packs and brought a large sps colony and someone else also brought a large soft coral for the raffle. Kyle brought a bunch of frags from his tank too as well as a few others. The raffle table was awesome!! 

     Here's our VP & secretary trying to play name that coral...

     The raffle begins.

     And the happy winner of the tank is Country Bob!

     Successful meeting! Everyone was happy afterwards, even if they didn't win the tank, and the Lutz received a nice donation. 

Until next time, stay fraggin!

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Field Trip With Stingrays & Sharks

     I'm officially about seven/eight months away from being caught up with this blog. To those of you that keep coming up to me and telling me how much you enjoy reading what I write, thank you. To those of you who insisted that I continue to write....

     Seriously, I do enjoy every moment of our hobby (except for any part of it that involves more money) but, I really got myself into something with this blog. Trying to plan our wedding, work, take care of four kids, teach one to drive (around her work schedule), plus this...what the hell was I thinking? A reality show would have been easier...

     So, it's March now. The public relations officer of CTARS has booked this awesome trip with the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk for a behind the scenes tour of the facility. Yes, yes! We are definitely going to this!! If anyone has ever been to the Mystic Aquarium, it's a bit of a letdown when you are into reefkeeping and I brought Chris to the Boston Aquarium a few years ago because the first (and only) time I went to it I thought it was soooo cool. Walking up that round aquarium in the middle was like, WOW! However, once you become a reefkeeper, these places become more of a letdown and seem more like a morgue for the corals you care so much about. A behind the scenes tour of an aquarium we haven't been to sounded fantastic and it was nice to see the club doing something proactive again. 

     Pretty much the very first thing we were brought to were the touch tanks. These were Chris' favorite part of the entire tour. They had two sharks and a shit ton of stingrays you could pretty much play with in this large tank. Aside from wanting to throw the little kids out of the way, this was really cool. 

This Photo Courtesy of Amber Purstell

     We were then brought over to see the octopus they have there and the jellyfish room. I don't have a good photo of the octopus but, the below picture is of tiny, tiny jellyfish in that container :)

     A beautiful tank leads us to the back of it where they explain how they switched over to LED's recently. Ugh! Hate LED's! This would explain the decline in any SPS in that tank. However, the RBTA's are magnificent. 

     We head over to the backroom of what I believe was some sort of large fresh water tank. I could be wrong and the pictures of the fish I have can't be distinguished between a fish or a blob. 

     Then we went over to the sea turtle tank. I liked this one. Everyone got to go up and watch them in small groups from the top of the tank. 

     I think everyone got a kick out of the valves on this monster skimmer. 

     Then over to the tank that houses the fish that have been found in Long Island Sound. 

     Behind it, this tank...

     Then off into the back room of the aquarium. In one or two spots you can look into these little holes and see a small portion of what we were able to experience. If you ever go there, look for them and take a peek!

     Finally to the shark tank...to the top to watch them feed!

     We hit a few other spots and I have more pictures but, they weren't amazing or just more blobs. These were the highlights of the tour (to me anyway) which is why I posted what I did. 

     Eighteen tons of salt are used at this aquarium each year. I can't even recall how many thousands of gallons of water they had running through the entire system but, it was amazing! It's certainly worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

     Once the tour was over Chris and I walked the entire facility (missing the meerkats dammit!) and then spent another hour petting the sharks and stingrays :)

     Until next time...

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